A Time To Play
by Ronnie K
Summary: Superman and Wonder Woman have a stop along the way as they head toward the Fortress of Solitude. Short one-shot, no plot.


After she assured him that she wouldn't feel the cold, Clark decided to give Diana a tour of his Fortress. He wanted to show her something personal, and other than his apartment, there was nothing more personal to him than his Fortress of Solitude. His crystal castle was one of the few gifts from his father Jor-El. Wrested from the arctic ice by a crystal only slightly longer than his hand, the massive building looked as if it was copied from a fantasy novel. It wasn't exactly Kryptonian magic, but it was quite impressive by Earth standards.

More importantly, it was a refuge for Kal-El from Krypton. A place to leave worldly cares behind, or a place where he could wrestle with a difficult problem. It was his place away from being Superman, or even being Clark Kent. In his sanctum, he was just Kal-El from Krypton.

It also served a museum of sorts. Whenever he had ocassion to travel to exotic places (or planets) he would try to bring a keepsake back to the fortress. The otherworldly mementos ranged from strange rocks to even stranger creatures. It was a very calming place for a sometimes weary superman.

The air grew colder as they flew farther north and below the clouds now that they were above uninhabited, ice-covered terrain. Clark began to wonder why he was showing her his place. It was in a secret location that no one else knew. No one even knew that there was such a place. Yet here he was, bringing someone he was attracted to, but didn't really know all that well yet. Like a kid showing off his treehouse to his new girlfriend.

Instead of showing off, he hoped it would be seen as he intended, as a gesture of trust. It was important Diana knew that he trusted her. The first time they looked into each other's eyes, he knew that she was someone he could trust with anything. He could only hope that she would see that she, in turn, could trust him too. One thing at a time, he told himself.

Shaking himself from his reverie, Clark turned to check on his guest. Diana had stopped about a quarter of a mile back. While daydreaming, he hadn't realized it had begun to snow. He could see that she was mesmerized by the falling flakes. Clark made his way back to her.

"It's called snow, Diana", his amusement carefully held in check.

She was catching snowflakes on her hand and watching them melt. She didn't look up as she replied, "I know what it's called, Clark, I've just never actually seen it before. This is just amazing. They each truly seem to be unique."

She looked up at him, her eyes meeting his. Again, he was struck by her beauty. The gently falling snow and the the cloudy sky behind framed her as if in a picture. The whiteness all around made her stand out even more than usual. She was breath-taking. He continued to stare at her just as she had stared at the snow. With an amused smile, she glided past him. "Shall we keep going?"

They flew the rest of the way in a comfortable silence. Diana looked around her in wonder at the snow covered mountains and the ice covered plains while Clark tried to see these things through her eyes. He had long ago stopped noticing the truly beautiful landscape and now, seeing her enjoyment of it, he tried to recapture his own awe when he first began coming here. Diana was already making him see things anew. It felt good.

Finally, they touched down on the icy ground in front of the Fortress. Diana looked at the towering edifice very much like she looked at the snow.

"This is magnificent. How did you build it?"

"Honestly, I didn't. My father left me a special crystal, which, when I threw it here, began building the place by itself."

"This came from a crystal? That's even more amazing than the Fortress itself, Clark." She turned and walked away a little to admire the view of the plateau and drink it it's beauty.

"Diana", Clark called to her softly. She turned towards him slowly, still distracted by the scenery.

An impressive puff of snow exploded on Diana's head as the missile connected. The red star at the center of Wonder Woman's tiara disappeared under a patch of white snow. He had delivered the perfect shot. The tough part had been calling to her without giving away his intentions, and he had done it.

The only difference between regular and "super" humans regarding snowballs was in regards to packing and velocity. Clark had learned, after gaining his powers, that it wasn't just a matter of packing up some snow and throwing it. He had to take extra care when packing it or it would be crushed into an iceball, so it took a bit of time to learn the right amount of pressure he could apply. Actually throwing the snowball had it's own difficulties. Trying to throw it too hard resulted in it disintegrating before it even left his hand. Slowing down his arm speed was harder than actually packing the stuff. However, as the years went on, he became quite skillful at the art of snowballing. That practice had finally paid off.

"That, in case you weren't aware, is called a snowball." he managed to spit out between bouts of laughter.

His accuracy wasn't what had him doubled over, though. Taken completely by surprise, the speed of impact found her off-balance. Before she knew what happened, she found herself sitting in the snow, confusion painting her features. The expressions of surprise and irritation that flashed across her face are what sent Clark into a paroxysms of laughter.

It wasn't until quite a few seconds later when Kal could bring himself to stand up straight again. As he did, he found himself choking on a mouthful of snow. Most he managed to spit out, while a good bit he had to swallowed.

A now standing (and smiling) Diana informed him, "That, in case you weren't aware, is called a snowball sandwich."

The fight was on. A barrage of snow rained down on each of them, but now that both combatants were ready, no direct hits were scored. Clark batted them all down as quickly as Diana deflected his return salvos with her bracelets. That didn't stop them both from getting soaked, however, since each intercepted ball flew apart like a grenade and the puffs of snow found their marks indirectly.

A good twenty minutes went by as the two figures frolicked in the snow before a truce was wordlessly agreed upon. They sat together smiling in front of the Fortress, each satisfied with the results of their battle. After awhile Clark stood up and offered his hand to his beautiful foe, who took it and stood beside him.

"Shall we go in?" he offered.

"Yes, please" she replied.

They walked towards the massive doors hand in hand.


End file.
